09 December, 2011

Population policies have little impact on the way a minority of humans use the Earth's resources.

The population "problem" for the environment is more accurately
described as two rectangles, each representing the number of people on
the vertical and their lifestyles on the horizontal: one tall skinny
quadrant encompasses billions of people who use very little of Earth's
resources; the other a much shorter, extraordinarily long one for the
minority of humans who use the vast majority of natural wealth.

Across time and geography, countries that have reduced birth rates have
got richer and so more consumptive: rising incomes, better health and
education give men and women the confidence that more of their children
will survive into adulthood and help support their families; and as
birthrates fall governments can spend more on each person's health,
education and jobs, feeding a virtuous cycle of economic development and
slowing population growth.

At the same time, study after study shows environmental damage rises –
so far almost always perpetually – with income, and often more steeply
as developing countries begin to industrialise. Most dramatically, these
forces appear to have come together in China, whose one-child policy –
albeit with massive state investment and rapid expansion of the market
economy – has coincided with the country's rise to become the world's
second biggest economy (and, incidentally, the biggest emitter of
greenhouse gas pollution).

06 December, 2011

Little Printer lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip
from friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little
Printer will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful
mini-newspaper.

27 November, 2011

Recently came across this product - A Hidden Radio & BlueTooth Speaker on Kickstarter. Kickstarter, a funding platform, has an interesting business model to offer. And ofcourse the Radio is awesome :) How Kickstarter basically works is the creator can put his project on this funding platform and interested people can pledge an amount. Once the amount is reached, the project starts off. (read more below)

The
HiddenRadio & Bluetooth Speaker is based off minimal, timeless design and
user intuition. When asleep it hides all its functions, being silent and
unanimated. To turn it on you simply twist and lift the cap; the further you
lift the cap the more internal volume is created and will amplify to over 80dB
of crystal clear sound. This unique design connects and captivates the user
through its intuitive functionality.

What is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is the world's largest funding platform for creative projects. Every week, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields.

A new form of commerce and patronage.
This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100%
ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and
experiences that are unique to each project.

All or nothing funding.
On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs
out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved.
Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary
funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

16 November, 2011

Recently read this article in the Hindu on how one can live (and relish) only eating uncooked vegetarian food. Some excerpts

Myth 1: Eating raw food means living off salad. Only salad - False
Myth 2: If you're vegan, leave alone vegetarian, your choices of food at a restaurant wiggle down to two - False
Myth 3: You can't live an entire day off food that is uncooked - False

Meet Lisa Pitman and she'll bust these and many more myths for you. A
certified raw chef from Canada, Lisa is on a new age crusade across
India, Thailand, Bali, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii convincing
people of the “The Healing Power of Plants” and converting them to
“Eating Without Heating”. “It's a growing movement and Toronto alone has
six raw food restaurants now,” says the petite Lisa, twinkle in the
eye.

She starts her day with a smoothie made of kale (a variety of greens),
banana, coconut milk, and oats (for texture). The snack she carries to
work is either fruit or vegetables. “Lunch is a really big salad with
greens, avocado, shredded beets, sauces, dry fruits and a pinch of sea
salt.” She snacks in the evening on a raw energy bar she makes and
dinner is a veggie wrap. And hold it…she loves dessert — frozen banana
whipped in a blender to ice-creamy perfection and topped with berries.
“I never ever crave fried food,” she declares, morphing into a goddess
in my eyes.

Here is an excellent article on future of interaction design which pushes you to think beyond 'touch' and 'glass'. This article reminded me of the multi-sensory course we did while studying design at N.I.D. I would like to include the last part of the article here

Look down at your hands. Are they attached to anything? Yes —
you've got arms! And shoulders, and a torso, and legs, and feet! And
they all move!

Any dancer or doctor knows full well what an incredibly expressive
device your body is. 300 joints! 600 muscles! Hundreds of degrees of
freedom!

The next time you make breakfast, pay attention to the exquisitely
intricate choreography of opening cupboards and pouring the milk —
notice how your limbs move in space, how effortlessly you use your
weight and balance. The only reason your mind doesn't explode every
morning from the sheer awesomeness of your balletic achievement is that everyone else in the world can do this as well.
With an entire body at your command, do you seriously think the Future Of Interaction should be a single finger?

15 November, 2011

According to the I-Cube report by Internet and Mobile Association of India, India is set to have 12 crore users by Dec 2011 out of which 9.7 crore will be active users accessing net atleast once a month. Around 9 crore will be from cities and the rest from rural areas.

09 October, 2011

16 May, 2011

Oh, what a game it is! ...and now they have an online version too!http://chrome.angrybirds.comAlso, it's interesting to see how Rovio (the company that made Angry Birds) is expanding to build a diversified entertainment franchise spanning all media.

Some estimates put its total usage at 200 million minutes per day.

It is this staying power and loyalty that convinced Hed that Angry Birds can become the platform that makes Rovio, based just outside of Helsinki, Finland, into a global entertainment company.

“When we realized we had a big hit on our hands with Angry Birds, we looked at companies that had gone before us, especially in the mobile gaming sector where we were at that time very firmly,” Hed, CEO of Rovio told CNBC.com.

“We saw that most gaming companies had then immediately tried to make another hit game and we realized that had very rarely worked. Rather, we started to look at what we could do around Angry Birds and if there was a way that we could build this into an entertainment franchise,” he added.

Hed has aggressive expansion plans for Rovio, and said that the company will consider making acquisitions in the more traditional media space in order to advance its strategy.

At Wedbush Morgan, analyst Lou Kerner warns investors not to underestimate the value of social gaming, despite those who dismiss the soaring price tags as another dotcom-style bubble.

“Cityville got to 100 million users in seven weeks. That’s not possible in the world of video games. So you’re looking at much larger user bases at a much lower cost. Even though they might monetize at a lower rate they can still be massively valued companies like Zynga,” he added.

Many commentators even said that Facebook was overvalued at $1 billion, simply “because $1 billion is a big number,” Kerner said.

“The opportunity today I think is unparalleled in the history of gaming to build profitable companies of significant scale. That’s what’s under-appreciated broadly. When Zynga was trading at $1 billion, people said it was overvalued. It was overvalued at $2 billion and it was overvalued at $5 billion and overvalued at $8 billion. So why is it overvalued?”

24 December, 2010

Tree house meets bird house, with a dash of hammock thrown into the mix. While it is not large enough to house the amenities of a true tree home, it is certainly a step up from a simple outdoor couch or recliner – and can be hung at a variety of heights.

Hey everyone, I am Rahul. Welcome to my blog... well it's not exactly "my" blog, it is more like keeping a copy of everything interesting I come across everyday. The topics vary from design to technology to spirituality to business practices to etc to etc!
The primary audience is uhh, only me but I hope you'll find something interesting too!